How to Begin a Journey
by Kittyclaw
Summary: AU, drabbles. "There was no good reason for their unexpected friendships, but really it was for the best. Suddenly facing unpredictable lessons and magical worlds and teachers with secrets, they were going to need it." Part of The Athame Chronicles.


**This is what happens when I talk to people. Stories. Recently I was talking to the lovely Sartruce, SeeMeInTheShadows, and Soul Jelly and somehow we got on the topics of AU's and magical Jeremies and suddenly we'd created a world where everyone was magic or something similar. They have their own plans for stories using the same AU idea, meanwhile this is my offering. If you like it be sure to look out for their other works, coming soon!**

* * *

No mortal human had ever breached the realm of Lyoko, not once.

He was the first.

In this unprecedented event, judgment fell to the fairy queen to decide his fate.

She'd chosen leniency.

And, as together they explored lands of man and fairy alike, as they hid away together, just them, as intelligent grey eyes met wonder-filled green—

She'd chosen love, as well.

It was eight years now since Franz last visited the fairy kingdom. It was in ruin—their queen vanished, their princess dead.

He hid away, terrified by the truth.

A kingdom lost, and all because of him.

* * *

Fire swirls past and Ulrich barely makes it behind the rocky outcropping as the Scandinavian Broadwing tells him just what it thinks of Ulrich's dragon handling skills. Ulrich doesn't blame the creature for its frustrations—he's been in its enclosure for three hours now attempting to "train" it, with little success.

All because, four and a half hours ago, he learned that his father had decided he wasn't good enough for the family career.

Instead he was being shipped off to boarding school.

Behind him the dragon roars and Ulrich sighs.

_Maybe it'll just eat me and solve my problems._

* * *

After almost a century she understand that from time to time they have to move, to avoid suspicion. Yumi has no friends. No family home. No real ties to the area, not after all this long, and yet the idea still hurts.

Somehow being undead doesn't make it any easier, especially not now when her father's decided they need to play the "normal" game, a fancy way of saying that Yumi is being sent to school to learn about 'human behaviors.'

Loading her things into boxes, Yumi can only sigh.

_Since when is human exposure exactly what a vampire needs?_

* * *

He understands, he thinks, as he packs jars of powders and carefully sealed liquids into his suitcase. Of course they think it's strange that he never leaves his room, strange that as soon as he had a credit card he was ordering a wild assortment of mysterious items from even more obscure companies: chemicals his parents had never heard of, books in languages they couldn't read.

It made sense that his parents would think he needed more social interaction kids his age.

Jeremy sighed, looking up at the building.

_But did they really have to pick boarding school for this?_

* * *

Her last memory is hazy, uncertain. She can see running, hear shouts, someone with grey hair and kind eyes leaning over her.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," they say, and she wants to ask "For what?" but her voice is gone and she can't get it back.

Darkness follows.

Her first memory is of light. Warm and flickering, and then blue as eyes hidden behind glass find hers. A smile as he introduces himself as Jeremy Belpois.

Aelita still isn't sure about the last memory, but as she looks up at the blonde she thinks she really likes the first.

* * *

Odd was nine when he was bitten. He'd been playing outside, on the sandy beach of his family's island home, when he'd heard the sound of heavy pants and footfalls in the surf. He hadn't even tried to run—the attack was just too fast. His father heard the howling, came running with his silver loaded shotgun, but by the time the shots were fired it was already too late.

Five years later Odd stands before the first real school he'll attend since that fateful night. Because he just wants, more than anything, to finally, _finally _have his life back.

* * *

He's been alone for a long, long time.

Some vampires remain in family units. Some, like his, are scattered by the transformation. William can barely remember his parents, taken so long ego. Sometimes he thinks he should be sad about this, but when you've spent an eternity wandering through life it gets increasingly harder to find things truly worth the wasted sadness.

Happiness, on the other hand, that's a fun one to search for. Friendships seem to be the key so now he's at the school hoping that this time, _this time_, he'll finally manage it.

Manage friendships.

Manage _happiness._

* * *

News gathering pros, they are. Every latest scoop and they're on it before anyone else. Milly and Tamia know more about this school then it knows about its self.

For Tamia it's the pursuit of a dream—camera woman, anchor woman, everything news for the rest of her life.

For Milly it's the pursuit of something more. A family legacy, a lifelong quest.

And now she's so close. So lucky.

She's followed two vampires—two!—to this school, and as she sharpens her stakes, sorts her garlic she knows now it's only a matter of time before she finally strikes.

* * *

The students think they're clever, engaging in all of their strange behaviors under the noses of those watching them without being noticed.

They're wrong, of course.

Jim notices. Every day he's in this office complaining that he's _certain _Della Robbia and Stern have animals in that dorm.

Suzanne notices. More than once she's come to him, showing him papers from Belpois and Stones that show knowledge way above their age.

Don't get him started on Milly.

But Delmas knew what he signed up for when he asked to be _this school's_ principal.

Just a usual day's work at Kadic Academy.

* * *

They all came for different reasons—some reluctant, some hopeful, others with purpose or nothing left to lose. Some wanted loneliness while others hoped for friendship and over time the latter wore down the former as roommates bonded and the dead came back to life and animosity slowly, surely, gave way to bonds that had become, without anyone noticing, stronger than all of those other things combined.

There was no good reason for their unexpected friendships, but really it was for the best.

Suddenly facing unpredictable lessons and magical worlds and teachers with secrets, they were going to need it.


End file.
